City police are hoping to obtain video surveillance of two people in connection to Friday afternoon's apartment fire on Mary Street in downtown Barrie.
Detectives with the police department's Criminal Investigations Division are trying to locate video of two people walking along Mary Street between 1:15 and 1:45 p.m., on Jan. 8. Police say they were wearing dark jackets.
Anyone with information can email [email protected].
Emergency crews responded to an apartment building at 68 Mary St., a 40-unit residential building between Dunlop Street West and Ross Street, shortly before 2 p.m.
One woman had to be rescued from a third-floor apartment. She was taken to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre as a precaution.
At the scene, BarrieToday spoke to one man who said the apartment where the fire occurred was his and it was his girlfriend who was taken to hospital.
The man, who did not provide his name, said the fire was deliberately set at his door.
“I was out getting coffee and I came back to see all of this chaos. My girlfriend was rescued from our apartment and when she came out she told me that someone lit a fire on our door,” he said. “I don’t know who would do that, but I hear it was gas poured on the door and on the floor in the hall.”
At the scene, Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday that when police arrived around 1:30 p.m., they tried to gain entry to the building and were turned away by smoke.
Due to the heavy police presence in the area, Leon also confirmed officers were investigating an incident that had occurred prior to the fire.
The Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) is also investigating the blaze.
